


Easily Attained

by simply_gorgeous



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Age Up, F/M, Poor kitty pining, We all know she likes her kitty, more than she lets on, why can't they move faster?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-10
Updated: 2019-04-10
Packaged: 2020-01-07 15:01:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,785
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18413030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/simply_gorgeous/pseuds/simply_gorgeous
Summary: Chat Noir has loved his Lady for years in vain. But is she really as unaffected by the amorous feline as she seems?





	Easily Attained

Chat Noir was crouching comfortably on a ledge of the Eiffel Tower: tonight's designated starting point for the nightly patrol. Ladybug was running late this evening, but he didn't mind; he needed time to think. About her. 

His Lady. 

She was wonderful in so many ways. He admired her courage and quick thinking in the midst of battles, the way she always put others before herself, her determination to win, and her unfailing compassion toward those who had terrorized the city. He loved her fire and the fight she put up with his constant teasing. He liked her because she wasn't easy. He knew that if she ever returned his affections, they would be reflected on and genuine, but...odds weren't very good to that affect.

Chat sighed. What else could he do? He was running out of ideas. The compliments were brushed off, the teasing touches rebutted with a slap to his cheek, and that one time with the bouquet...

"Are you seriously trying to give me _flowers_? In the middle of an akuma attack?"

Somehow the poor blooms had survived the fight, and he later gave them to Marinette who took them with a soft smile and a "why, thank you, Chat."

He didn't know what else to do. He felt as if he liked her more and more while it seemed less and less likely for her to ever respond.

Ah, well. A thing was never valued for being easily attained. 

A soft thud sounded behind him, and Chat knew his Lady had finally arrived. 

"Well hello, mademoiselle. How are you _feline_ this evening?"

Ladybug rolled her eyes as usual. 

"I was going to apologize for being late, but your terrible pun made me think better of instigating a conversation with you. Seriously, don't you think that one has been grossly overused?"

He doubled over, clawed hand clutching at his chest.

"Ah, mademoiselle, my heart is broken! How could you not want to talk to _moi_?"

The red-clad woman shook her head in fond exasperation at the human feline who could at times put Shakespeare to shame.

"Oh, for pete's sake, you can be so melodramatic. Let's just start the patrol."

And so it was that the two heroes of Paris began their run through the city, looking for danger. It had been six years since they had formed their alliance and vowed to protect the city from what it could not protect itself. And it had been six years since Marionette had decided that Chat Noir was the single most annoying person she had ever met. 

But, of course, that was six years ago. 

Now Marionette knew him better. Had been through so much more with him. Had been saved by and had saved him multiple times. Had become so used to him, over time she found he had endeared himself to her. Now Marionette was the 19 year-old intern to the father of her long-time crush, Adrien Agreste, and was around said young man enough to notice subtle similarities between him and her partner. She realized that she had fallen in love with a combination of Adrien's sweetness and Chat's suggestiveness, the man's mind and the feline's heart. She found herself daydreaming about Adrien being Chat's secret identity and became more and more enthralled with the idea until she forcibly brought herself out of her fantasy land. There was no such thing as the perfect guy, right? 

"Chat, look," Ladybug whispered, coming to a halt at the edge of the flower shop's roof they were currently crossing. 

Chat knelt next to her and peered over the edge. 

"What? I don't see anything...oh. Wait, what is that?"

In the alley beneath them two figures silhouetted by the light of the flower shop's slightly ajar back door were moving around in small jerking movements making unintelligible sounds muffled by obvious attempts to remain unnoticed. The shadowed figures snuck down the alley several feet before moving crates and boxes as quietly as possible. Ladybug closed her fingers around her yo yo, preparing to leap down at a moment's notice. She glanced over at Chat who whispered,

"Do you think it's a robbery?" 

She shook her head in bewilderment and shrugged. 

"Not sure. It seems like they're forming a barricade around themselves. This might get messy. It could be a stick-up." 

"Keep it down!"

At the urging hiss from below that Ladybug could just barely make out, Chat moved closer to her and reached behind his back for his baton. Ladybug held her breath and shifted ever so slightly closer to the edge. She raised her hand to signal her partner to action when he suddenly went rigid, twitched his ears fully towards the noise, and froze. 

Ladybug cocked her head in a way she recognized was Chat's mannerisms rubbing off on her and stared at her partner. The tips of his human ears were tingeing red and his fingers were gripped so tightly his claws scraped against the smooth metal of his baton.

She whipped her head back to the shadowy scene below and found out just what had her partner frozen like one of Medusa's victims. 

The two people were pressed against each other, one's back to the brick wall, engaging in what appeared to be an eating contest. Of each other's faces. 

Shocked and quite thoroughly disgusted, Marionette let out the air she had been holding and squeezed her eyes shut. With her tongue sticking out, she lightly touched Chat's upper arm. 

He turned to her, eyes wide before shaking his head as if to clear his thoughts. Conscientious is the couple below, the two superheroes stole backwards and retraced their earlier steps across a few buildings to put some distance between them and the...whatever that was. 

When they landed on the top of an apartment building a block away, they stopped to rest, panting from the waning adrenaline of the almost encounter. 

"Heavens!" Ladybug sighed, leaning against a chimney. "I'm glad you sensed something was weird before I called you into battle mode!"

Chat chuckled.

"Yeah, _that_ would've been awkward."

Marionette shook her head again, trying her hardest to completely erase the image from her head. 

"Just...yuck! Ugh. I can't even, that was _so_ , ermigblah!"

She smacked a hand against her forehead and then dragged it down her face. She peered through her fingers to find Chat staring at her, head cocked, _surprise surprise_ , wearing an amused expression.

"What?"

"A little make out session has you that disturbed?"

She blushed, not really knowing how to respond. True, she had had her fair share of fantasies full of soft touches and heated kisses. And public school hadn't exactly left her on the road to becoming a nun either. But she hated watching other people's public displays of affection, especially when it was more a display of desire than actual affection. 

She glanced up at the appearance of a shadow looming over her to find that Chat had come closer. There was a look of pure mischief in his smile as he said,

"I wonder how flustered you'd be if I suddenly grabbed you around waist,"

His arms snuck around her to do just that.

"Pulled you in,"

His actions mimicked his words, and she was brought close to his chest.

"And kissed you senseless."

Ladybug's breath caught. Her eyes closed, her chest heaved, and her lips tingled at the feeling of his breath. She could feel the heat radiating off his suit and into hers and consciously—ahem, _unconsciously_ —leaned further into him so that there was nothing separating them but the leather of their costumes and tension think enough to cut with a knife. 

Her heart rate sped up to an incredible pace as his fingertips ghosted over her cheekbone and was barely able to restrain herself from threading her own through his golden, unruly hair. She was charged with an energy that was humming through her if only he would just—

Then there was nothing. Nothing but a cold, empty space where his body had been pressed against hers. Her eyes snapped open to perceive him regarding her with an expression reminiscent of a cat's resigned disappointment that its game had come to an end. 

"But, of course, I would never do that. I am, after all, a gentleman."

She blinked. Once, twice, in an attempt to reorient herself. 

_Come on, Marionette, get it together! Say something!_

"Oh, naturally," she drawled, trying to mimic her usual teasing and sarcastic tone. "A gentleman wouldn't _think_ of doing _that_." 

Unfortunately, it came out choppy and every ounce of expected smoothness was lost. He didn't act as if he noticed, rather, continued the flirty banter with all too much satisfaction coloring his tone. 

"Nothing of the kind."

His piercing green eyes bored into hers. 

"Ever." She breathed staring right back. 

_Beep!_  
**Beep!**

Their miraculous alarms went off simultaneously, alerting them that their kwamii wanted to eat. 

"Well, gotta bug out! Bye!"

The words had barely shot out of her mouth before Ladybug was fleeing the terrifyingly exhilarating situation. She just couldn't decide whether she enjoyed the terrifying or hated the exhilarating.

It felt like an eternity had passed before she finally reached the rooftop of her room. As she fell onto her bed and released her transformation, Marionette covered her face with her hands and asked herself for the millionth time that night,

What just happened?

"Chat Noir almost kissed you!"

Oops. She must have voiced it out loud this time. 

Tikki just giggled mischievously as if she knew something Marionette didn't before flying off to find cookies. Marionette just groaned; she had bigger problems. Chat Noir had just almost kissed her.

_And she had wanted him to._

As he watched Ladybug turn and flee, Chat's mouth slid into a sly grin. Maybe it wasn't too impossible for him to get to her after all. Even though he had grown more flirty over the years, she had matched him stride for stride in rebuttals. Tonight, however...  


His mind wandered back to how she had looked when he had pulled her flush against him. Standing there with her eyes closed, trepidatious and _expectant_ had made him almost lose his self-control and follow through with their little game. Almost. But he wasn't going to make a move on Ladybug, well, a _real_ one anyway, until he was sure he didn't have feelings for anyone else. A certain Princess in particular was getting dangerously close to his heart in ways he wasn't sure he was wholeheartedly fighting. 

Ah well. He'd figure out this whole feelings thing eventually despite his bad luck. 

After all, a thing was never valued for being easily attained.


End file.
